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HISTORY 483: CONSUMERISM AND THE WORLD OF GOODS IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH AMERICA This seminar is an exploration of material culture in the colonial and revolutionary periods. As it traces the transition from production ot consumption in early America, it will examine how the ability of capitalism to shape taste, fashion, architecture, material culture, and even manners led to "a refinement of America." It will explore the meaning of consumption to both the genteel and ordinary folk, the purpose that consumption served, and the systems of value in which consumption was embedded. It will also study how consumerism created as well as reflected moral ideologies and political attitudes as old structures were first subverted and then radically modified. This page is maintained by Vivian Bruce
Conger, vconger@ithaca.edu |